Bud #12: Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon

"See a theme here? No editors to decide what information is important." OBVIOUSLY! If we are to start trusting the collective conscious of internet users for what information is important, we are in trouble. I visited all of these "social media" sites and was quite disheartened. Perhaps it's because I work at an academic library and spend a lot of time trying to steer students away from crud on the internet that I was disappointed by the results of my social site surfing.

Here are the results of my search for "libraries":

• Digg: Result #2: 6-year-old raped in a public library.
  Result #3: "Library Porno" Oh, Great!
• Reddit: Hits seemed of higher caliber including technology sites;
  iTunes articles are popular. Result #2: World Cat!
• Newsvine: Kind of like Ripley's Believe it or Not with the "World's Tallest Man"as today's lead story.
• Mixx: Result #1 was LibraryThing! Hey, I know that one.
  Result #2: Study: Young adults heavy library users, but I couldn't connect to the site.

Note to self: Explore Reddit and Mixx further. Leave celebrities and scandals behind.